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We need to make it easier for people to control a domain name, and host content with HTTPS. You should be able to migrate your backend from provider to provider

We need to make it easier for people to control a domain name, and host content with HTTPS. You should be able to migrate your backend from provider to provider or open source project without losing control over the URLs. All individual content should be behind a personal domain name. Here's a product I would love to pay for: A service that sells domain names, but also makes it easy to use them. It should provide a tool like ngrok that I can run on my local machine like this: not-ngrok host anderspitman.net 8080 That contacts the service, has you log in, then (on first run) uses Let's Encrypt to get a cert for anderspitman.net, and sets up a WireGuard tunnel so any server I run on localhost:8080 is now accessible via https://anderspitman.net https://anderspitman.net. This lets me host whatever I want from any machine I want, even my phone, without ever having to mess with or think about certs again.

masswerk 6y ago
There used to be a service exactly for this, but pre-HTTPS. It was free using their TLD and a named subdomain, but you could also use your own domain name, which was probably a charged service. Sadly, I can't remember the name.
- anderspitman 6y ago
  Part of my motivation in commenting was hoping it already exists. There's not much to it. The key is that it has to be very vertically integrated. I need to be able to buy (or port), manage, and use the domain all from the same simple interface. CloudFlare does a lot of this, but you need a public server for them to proxy. They seem well positioned to add a CLI tool for the last mile ngrok-like part though.
  - dvaun 6y ago
    > CloudFlare does a lot of this, but you need a public server for them to proxy. They seem well positioned to add a CLI tool for the last mile ngrok-like part though. It's funny that you mention this, because they actually do have a service for hosting static sites in conjunction with a CLI tool, wrangler, for publishing them: https://blog.cloudflare.com/extending-the-workers-platform/ https://blog.cloudflare.com/extending-the-workers-platform/
    - anderspitman 6y ago
      That's obviously a related idea, but I have concerns: * Complex. What if I don't need a CDN or kv store? * Why just static sites? Why not just forward to a local port then you can run whatever you want, including a static server. One huge advantage of being able to run on your local machine is you have access to terabytes of storage at very low cost. You can host as much images, videos, music, etc as you want, especially if it's behind a simple login (like a NextCloud server). * Not open source.
imtringued 6y ago
Just use duckdns and certbot. It's a minor hassle but it's what you want.
- anderspitman 6y ago
  DuckDNS looks like a nice API for the DNS part, but you still have to set up port forwarding and manage certbot. Basically it's still an imperative process. What I'm talking about would be more declarative. You run a command that says, "I want https://anderspitman.net https://anderspitman.net to forward to localhost:9001" and the system figures out everything necessary to make it work.

masswerk 6y ago

There used to be a service exactly for this, but pre-HTTPS. It was free using their TLD and a named subdomain, but you could also use your own domain name, which was probably a charged service. Sadly, I can't remember the name.

anderspitman 6y ago
Part of my motivation in commenting was hoping it already exists. There's not much to it. The key is that it has to be very vertically integrated. I need to be able to buy (or port), manage, and use the domain all from the same simple interface. CloudFlare does a lot of this, but you need a public server for them to proxy. They seem well positioned to add a CLI tool for the last mile ngrok-like part though.
- dvaun 6y ago
  > CloudFlare does a lot of this, but you need a public server for them to proxy. They seem well positioned to add a CLI tool for the last mile ngrok-like part though. It's funny that you mention this, because they actually do have a service for hosting static sites in conjunction with a CLI tool, wrangler, for publishing them: https://blog.cloudflare.com/extending-the-workers-platform/ https://blog.cloudflare.com/extending-the-workers-platform/
  - anderspitman 6y ago
    That's obviously a related idea, but I have concerns: * Complex. What if I don't need a CDN or kv store? * Why just static sites? Why not just forward to a local port then you can run whatever you want, including a static server. One huge advantage of being able to run on your local machine is you have access to terabytes of storage at very low cost. You can host as much images, videos, music, etc as you want, especially if it's behind a simple login (like a NextCloud server). * Not open source.

imtringued 6y ago

Just use duckdns and certbot. It's a minor hassle but it's what you want.

anderspitman 6y ago
DuckDNS looks like a nice API for the DNS part, but you still have to set up port forwarding and manage certbot. Basically it's still an imperative process. What I'm talking about would be more declarative. You run a command that says, "I want https://anderspitman.net https://anderspitman.net to forward to localhost:9001" and the system figures out everything necessary to make it work.